Chapter 246: The First Shot of the German War of 1870
According to later historical records, starting from July 1870, three German powers launched wars one after another, and these three powers basically involved all German states in the war, so people collectively referred to these three wars in 1870 as the German War of 1870.
The Franco-Prussian War was the largest (in terms of the number of people and weapons involved), the most intense, and the most influential. The second was the Second Italo-Austrian War, and finally the Third War of Conquest of the East African Kingdom.
July 10, 1870.
On the iron chain bridge between the Lualaba River and the Zambezi River, people were surging, and the expanded East African New Army began to set out in three directions one after another.
The East African Kingdom, which has not yet digested Zambia, is about to use its last potential to completely lay the basic foundation for the East African Kingdom.
West bank of the Lualaba River.
M'siri, his sons, and the army of the M'siri regime had been waiting for a long time.
"Mr. Merk! Your country's strength is truly formidable!" M'siri exclaimed with lingering fear. The more than 30,000 well-equipped and well-trained East African Kingdom Army gave M'siri, the African chief, endless shock.
"Of course, Mr. Musiri. Any tribe is helpless in front of the East African Kingdom. If the East African Kingdom exerts a little force, you will not be able to stop it. You are a smart person who chooses to cooperate with us. As a friend of East Africa, we will not treat you unfairly."
M'siri has been portrayed by the East African Kingdom as a die-hard "African traitor". At the same time, the East African Kingdom has also promised that it will not abandon him in the future.
Before this war, the Kingdom of East Africa offered Mshiri two options: after clearing the entire Central and Southern Africa Plateau in East Africa, Mshiri could either live in the Sultanate of Zanzibar as a resident official, or go to West Africa via Central Africa. Mshiri chose the second option.
Looking at the huge East African army in front of him, Msiri was somewhat glad for his original choice. If he had chosen the wrong side, he would probably be the target of attack now. Msiri did not think that the hundreds of guns in his hands would be a match for the East African Army.
"Mr. Merk, rest assured. This time, our Yeke Kingdom will fully assist you in the battle. I dare not say anything about other regions, but the Luba Kingdom is my old rival. Let my people lead the way for you."
"Very good!" Merk affirmed.
…
"Bang..." The first shot of the Third East African Conquest War (the first was the Great Lakes War to eliminate the Eight Northwestern Kingdoms, and the second was the war between Zambia and the Geledi Sultanate, collectively known as the East African Conquest War) was fired in the Kasongo area, located between the Lualaba River and the Sankuru River. The Lualaba River is the upper reaches of the Congo River, and the Sankuru River is a tributary of the Congo River in the south. The East African Army heading north encountered the Luba Kingdom Army in this area.
…
The first town is the Kivit Palace.
Felix stood in front of the sand table and introduced: "In this conquest war, our East African Army is divided into four routes - the Northern Army, the Western Army, the Southern Army and the Southwestern Army. The targets are the Azande Plateau and southern South Sudan; the Lunda Plateau and the Kwango Plateau; the Matabele Plateau; and the northern area of the Kalahari Basin."
“Once the goal is achieved, East Africa will border Egypt in the north, the Portuguese colony of Angola and the Kingdom of Congo in the west, the Boer forces in the south, and will be surrounded by the Portuguese colony of Mozambique.
In other words, after this expansion, East Africa’s neighbors changed from indigenous peoples to countries around the world, including Britain, France, Egypt, the Abyssinian Empire, the Ottoman Empire (on the Red Sea coast), Portugal, the Boers, and the Somali tribes...
So there won’t be any big operations like this in East Africa for a long time.”
This is a very exaggerated action. The area it is planning to take over is about the size of India. Once completed, the territory of East Africa will directly reach more than 7 million square kilometers.
This is also the limit of East Africa. There is not enough food to eat the rest. As usual, the plateau is the foundation of the East African kingdom. This expansion is basically aimed at the plateau. In the tropical region, only the plateau and mountains are most suitable for human survival.
East Africa has limited capabilities, so naturally it must give priority to occupying those places that are considered good in East Africa’s eyes, so rainforests and deserts are not included in this plan.
Although the area west and south of the Kalahari Basin is basically an uninhabited area, the desert climate and the long supply lines make it almost impossible to complete the mission, and even if it is taken, there is no way to communicate.
Large-scale marches in the Congo rainforest are simply impossible to accomplish unless casualties are ignored. Even the indigenous people who have lived in the rainforest for generations do not dare to say that they can cross the rainforest.
In fact, it is still possible to occupy some riverside strongholds along the river, but it is completely unnecessary because it is impossible to establish effective rule. It is still possible to colonize, but there are not many people in the Congo rainforest. They are all very small tribes with no colonial value at all. All the valuable land in the Congo region is in this expansion in East Africa.
It should be emphasized here that the Congo region and the Congo rainforest in the previous life are two completely different concepts. When Congo is mentioned, it seems as if its natural resources are very rich and its arable land area is very large. However, Congo's minerals, population and arable land are all concentrated in the plateaus and mountainous areas in the southeast, northwest and northeast.
For example, in the past, the urban population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was distributed entirely around the Congo rainforest. Within this circle, the Mitumba Mountains in the east were already part of East Africa, and the Katanga Plateau in the south was also in the hands of East Africa. Now that East Africa is expanding, the Azande Plateau in the north and the Lunda and Kwango Plateaus in the south are gone, leaving only the area west of Kinshasa in the east where people can still live.
There happened to be a force already existing there, namely the Portuguese. In fact, before Belgium, the Portuguese had always promoted the Congo region as their sphere of influence, but the British did not see it that way, and other countries did not recognize it. Now the western part of Congo is divided between Portugal and the British, with the French Gabon colony next to it.
"Our troops will basically not experience any physical discomfort while marching along the plateau terrain. The most difficult area here is the Kalahari Basin, where water sources are a big problem. Although the Okavango River forms a huge inland delta here, it is also for this reason that almost all animals gather here. The people who drew the map said that herds of hippos there excrete feces into rivers and wetlands, and clean water sources are difficult to find, so the size of the army cannot be too large."
"Logistics is also a big problem. The natives in the plateau area grow some crops. If there is a shortage of food, they can temporarily solve it on the spot. There is no planting industry in the Kalahari Basin at all. All food must be transported from the east. The cost is simply not enough to support the existence of a large-scale army. Therefore, the Southwest Army has only more than a thousand people in total."
"The plateau areas are basically connected, and only the rivers hinder our marching speed. If we want to control these areas later, we must build roads and bridges."
(End of this chapter)
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